Inner critic

The inner critic or critical inner voice is a concept used in popular psychology and psychotherapy to refer to a subpersonality that judges and demeans a person.^[1]

A concept similar in many ways to the Freudian superego as inhibiting censor,^[2] or the Jungian active imagination,^[3] the inner critic is usually experienced as an inner voice attacking a person, saying that they are bad, wrong, inadequate, worthless, guilty, and so on.

^ Stinckens, Nele; Lietaer, Germain; Leijssen, Mia (March 2002). "The inner critic on the move: analysis of the change process in a case of short-term client-centred/experiential therapy". Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. 2 (1): 40–54. doi:10.1080/14733140212331384978.
^ Elliott, Kathy J. (Spring 1999). "The Inner Critic as a key element in working with adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse". Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. 63 (2): 240–253. The Inner Critic is roughly synonymous with the Freudian superego (Freud, 1923/1949a) ['The ego and the id']. However, there are important differences. Freud (1914/1949b) ['On narcissism: an introduction'] saw the superego as composed of two parts: the ego ideal, which sets standards, and the conscience, which punishes the person for not meeting those standards. AT's [anthetic therapy] concept of the Inner Critic is similar: The 'shoulds' are the standards (ego ideal), which are imposed by the Inner Critic (the punitive conscience).
^ Jung, Carl Gustav (1997) [1916]. "The transcendent function". In Chodorow, Joan (ed.). Jung on active imagination. Encountering Jung. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 54. ISBN 0691015767. There are, indeed, not a few people who are well aware that they possess a sort of inner critic or judge who immediately comments on everything they say or do. Insane people hear this voice directly as auditory hallucinations. But normal people too, if their inner life is fairly well developed, are able to reproduce this inaudible voice without difficulty, though as it is notoriously irritating and refactory it is almost always repressed.

[Stinckens2002-1] Stinckens, Nele; Lietaer, Germain; Leijssen, Mia (March 2002). "The inner critic on the move: analysis of the change process in a case of short-term client-centred/experiential therapy". Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. 2 (1): 40–54. doi:10.1080/14733140212331384978.

[2] Elliott, Kathy J. (Spring 1999). "The Inner Critic as a key element in working with adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse". Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. 63 (2): 240–253. The Inner Critic is roughly synonymous with the Freudian superego (Freud, 1923/1949a) ['The ego and the id']. However, there are important differences. Freud (1914/1949b) ['On narcissism: an introduction'] saw the superego as composed of two parts: the ego ideal, which sets standards, and the conscience, which punishes the person for not meeting those standards. AT's [anthetic therapy] concept of the Inner Critic is similar: The 'shoulds' are the standards (ego ideal), which are imposed by the Inner Critic (the punitive conscience).

[3] Jung, Carl Gustav (1997) [1916]. "The transcendent function". In Chodorow, Joan (ed.). Jung on active imagination. Encountering Jung. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 54. ISBN 0691015767. There are, indeed, not a few people who are well aware that they possess a sort of inner critic or judge who immediately comments on everything they say or do. Insane people hear this voice directly as auditory hallucinations. But normal people too, if their inner life is fairly well developed, are able to reproduce this inaudible voice without difficulty, though as it is notoriously irritating and refactory it is almost always repressed.

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